Café approved for new Home Bargains development in Grangetown area of Sunderland

Back in 2023, Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee approved a planning application for a new retail development in the Grangetown area.

The £10million scheme, first revealed by Fintry Estates and Hargreaves Land in 2022, included a new Home Bargains near Asda.

Planning documents discussed by councillors last year said the new Home Bargains would create around 60 full-time equivalent jobs and other “spin-off employment” for local businesses and construction firms.

Plans for the development, which will be accessed from Leechmere Road, also included the demolition of a ‘reservoir structure’ which once served a nearby paper mill.

Those behind the scheme added the discount shop would help regenerate the former industrial site, which had been vacant for many years and blighted by fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

Members of the city council’s Planning and Highways Committee gave the original plans the stamp of approval at a meeting on April 3, 2023, at City Hall.

Revised plans were later approved in January, 2024, to make several design changes to the building, as well as reducing parking numbers by 12 spaces and increasing the width of parking spaces.

Construction is well under way at the Home Bargains site and now a new planning application has been approved by Sunderland City Council to add a café to the development.

A formal application for this change, submitted by developers back in May, 2024, aimed to include a “155 square metre café” and a proposed canopy to an outdoor display area.

The proposed café will include “92 square metres of public space/seating and a 63 square metre staff/preparation area”, according to the planning listing.

Submitted floor plans show a similar layout to the café at the Home Bargains development near the Hylton Road roundabout, with a seating area, staff area and servery, as well as public toilets.

After considering the planning application and assessing it against planning policies, Sunderland City Council’s planning department approved it on September 12, 2024.

A council decision report said the amended development would meet the requirements of relevant planning policies and would be an “acceptable form of development”.

This was subject to the café including a “suitable system to extract and abate cooking odours and grease particulates”.

The council decision report adds: “It is considered that the proposed development, including the amendments, would cause no unacceptable impacts on the highway network in terms of its capacity and safety, or in relation to sustainable travel”.

For more information on the planning application, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 24/00919/VA4